The AntiOoze
by little red crayon
Summary: What if three brothers were returned to 'normal? What if it were up to the one left standing to change them back? What if their lives depended on Michelangelo doing chemistry?
1. Only One

I waited patiently in the lair as I always have when my sons were forced to journey to the surface for a fight. I cleaned and meditated as TV news reports played in the background. I waited, anxious for any news, any sign, any clue as to what was happening to my sons, knowing that anything newsworthy would risk revealing them to the outside world more than they should be. Usually I only waited for hours. This time I waited for days.

At long last I heard footsteps approaching in the sewer tunnels. At first my heart rose and then I realized that the footsteps were too unsteady, and too few. Though it was only moments it felt as though many hours had passed before my son staggered through the door. My worst fear entered with him- yes, even Master Splinter is afraid of something.

His face, his body, was badly injured. Blood, sweat and tears made him almost unrecognizable from across the room. But where was his mask I wondered.

With a groan he collapsed at last just inside the door and I rushed to kneel at his side. To save the one son who had returned to me. To learn of what had happened to his brothers. That is when I saw the masks in his right hand. Four masks, blue, purple, red, and orange. _If he had their masks then_… I could not finish the thought.

Then I noticed something moving near his left hand. Something small.

...

I rushed to contact our friend April. I knew that she would want to know what had transpired. I knew that I would need her help. I could not bring myself to explain it to her over the phone. She listened anxiously as I made such strange sounding requests.

"An aquarium, a heat lamp, rocks and all those books? What's going on? Is this one of Donny's experiments? Why couldn't he call me himself?"

"Please hurry April, I will explain further when you are here. It's… please hurry."

"I- I'm on my way Master Splinter."

When she arrived at last with her arms filled with heavy bags I explained to her what little I knew.

"I heard only one set of footsteps echo through the tunnels. Only one turtle collapsed upon the floor of our lair. I knelt at his side and I saw all my sons' masks in his one trembling hand. For him to have all of their masks like that... I had to wipe the blood off his face to look at my only returning son. After a moment I noticed something unusual at his side. Crawling slowly from his left hand and curling up close against his barely warm body were three small turtles. His three older brothers."


	2. Transformations

Disclaimer time!

I don't own the turtles, I just wish I did.

* * *

With the veterinary books and books on sea creatures and reptile and amphibian health, April and I did our best to nurse our Michelangelo back to health.

While I watched over my youngest son April kindly set up an aquarium with a heat lamp and water for the comfort and safety of my older three. It would not do to have them wandering around the tunnels so small. She used Donatello's computer to research the best way to care for and feed turtles that were too small to survive on pizza.

It took nearly an entire day before Michelangelo awoke to tell the story.

He was still badly injured, and somewhat disoriented. But he did his best to tell of us of their battle.

"It was a trap, sensei." He murmured. "We saw these dudes looking all shady and stuff so we followed them. It was amazing how easy it was to get inside that place. Leo was saying something about the poor security they seemed to have and then we were fighting like crazy. These dudes were everywhere. We kept getting separated then somehow we'd end up close together again. When we finally got cornered and I heard this one dude shout 'Now!' I glanced down almost expecting a trapdoor under our feet like in the cartoons. That's the only reason I saw that X. I yelled at them to move and started fighting again. I heard something splash all over the floor. Whatever it was it sounded- liquidy."

"Did you see what happened to them?"

"Not really. I just heard a big splash and then I was fighting so many bad dudes I couldn't look around to see where they were."

"So how could the splash have incapacitated them? What could it have been?"

He shrugged, "I just kept fighting and after a minute I realized I was the only turtle still goin'."

Always the fastest of the four, he was the only one quick enough to get away. He managed to break away from the fighting and hid himself within the warehouse. "I hid there for three days watching, waiting, until I figured out what happened to the guys and found a way to bring them home."

On the first night he found their masks and took them, fearing, as I had, that the worst had happened.

By the second night he had found his brothers. "They were locked away inside a cage, unconscious. I didn't see keys so or nothing and couldn't figure out how to get them outta there without getting the guards on my shell." He grabbed my hand with his, "Sensei, they looked weird. Like, different. Only not different."

By the third night he had come up with a plan.

"I set this thing up to make a lotta noise in one room and when the guards went in there to get me I went in and got the guys and they were…."

When first exposed to the ooze so many years ago it took time for the turtles and myself to grow to our full potential. It took only days for them to shrink back towards normalcy. What Michelangelo saw in that cage on the third night was three turtles the size of toddlers, barely awake and waiting to be freed.

His brothers barely seemed to recognize him, but they appeared to still trust him. He told them how to escape and where they should hide. "They were so tiny, I just had to get them outta there."

He was very hungry and still recovering from his last battle. He barely managed to escape with his life. He waited until he was sure no one was following him and snuck to where he'd had his brothers hide.

He waited until he had strength enough to lead them home. By then they were small enough he could hold all three of them in his arms.


	3. Antidotes?

Thanks for reading about the awesome turtles I don't own.

To the people who sent in reviews, thanks for letting me know you liked it. Made my day.

And Mikell, thanks for the help. And the many emails screaming "POST!" at me.

* * *

**Antidotes?**

The first thing Michelangelo showed interest in when he was able to stand was visiting his brothers. I was going to check on the water level and general maintenance of the aquarium when I spotted him kneeling in front of their new home attempting to feed them grapes. "Too bad you little dudes can't eat pizza."

He did not seem to know that I was there. Or perhaps he did not care.

"I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner, that big X on the floor. I tried to warn…" he sighed. "I don't know what to do. How am I supposed to help you?"

He stood up clumsily and turned around. He was trying his best not to let his wounds weaken him.

"You are feeling better my son?" I asked.

"Yes sensei."

There was silence.

"I'm sorry Master Splinter," he began, "I didn't catch on in time. If I'd caught it sooner… they'd…." he bowed his head.

"My son, I do not blame you for this. I thank you. You brought them home to me at great risk to yourself."

"If they've gone back to… if they've been… unmutated? How could the bad guys know how to unmutate us- um, them?"

"I do not fully understand what has happened either."

I led him to the couch and made him some tea. He looked lost.

"Think back to when you were hidden in the warehouse. Did you overhear anything that might be helpful?"

"There was an argument one night. It was about the only thing spoken loud enough for me to hear where I was hiding. Someone was angry that I'd got away. But they were happy that they'd gotten rid of….," he shifted uncomfortably. "Someone yelled something like 'of course we didn't make any of the original, why would we risk someone bringing them back?' and then they kept talking about an antidote."

"Most confusing. Usually the antidote would be what _would_ bring someone back, this is not how they meant it?"

"No, they kept saying 'the antidote worked.' Like they'd already used it. And the original would bring them back."

He looked as though he were struggling to work something out. I waited patiently to see what he had thought of.

"Master Splinter," he said at last, "that canister that the ooze was in when we were little, you kept it?"

"Yes my son."

"And Donny was researching it, doing experiments and stuff?"

"Yes."

"Maybe he wasn't the only one…"


	4. Cheat Sheets

**Cheat Sheets**

Later, as he fed his brothers a supper of small fish and crickets, I heard Michelangelo talking to them.

"It's like you demutated. I know Donny, that's not a real word. The point is, it's like they created some kinda… anti-ooze. I may not be Leo with a plan or Raphie out for revenge, and I know we could really use Donny's smarts right now, but don't worry little dudes, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get you back to- OUCH! Hey! Raph! Don't bite me! Guess you still don't like crickets."

Over the next couple of days Michelangelo spent much time pouring over Donatello's computer programs, old experiments, and notes as he finished recovering from his injuries.

At times I found him sitting there with a frustrated look on his face and the small Donatello turtle on the pile of papers. "C'mon Donny. Nibble on it, walk on it, poop on it. I don't care how you do it just show me what I need to know from this." He'd mutter. "Please?"

April came by every now and then to check on the situation as well as the tiny turtles in the aquarium. "They're actually kinda cute all tiny like this- don't tell them I said that!"

She brought books and information on the best way to care for my sons under these circumstances. She also brought coffee for Michelangelo who refused to sleep until his brothers were back, though a few times he passed out on a pile of Donatello's formulas.

"If I could just figure out what I needed." He kept saying, "I know I need ooze or whatever to mutate them back to normal but how do I get it?"

One day I was cleaning the aquarium when Michelangelo shouted triumphantly. "WOOHOO!"

I wandered away from my oldest sons to see what Michelangelo was so excited about. As I entered the lab I heard him chattering away.

"Donny you shell head! All these notes and graphs and charts that make no sense and you had a stinkin' cheat sheet halfway through!" he spun around clutching some dog-eared pages.

"Has there been a breakthrough?" I asked.

"Donny has a list of the ingredients he thinks are in the ooze. It's just sittin' here all written up. All that technical mumbo-jumbo I had to go through and he just had it written up like a stinkin' grocery list!" he was laughing hysterically. Perhaps he needed more sleep. Or less coffee.

"Sensei, call April, I think some of this stuff is sold in stores. Maybe science stores or something. The rest I'm gonna have to get somewhere else…"

"If it is not sold in stores where would you expect to get it?"

"I don't know." he sat down to consider everything while I called April and read her the items from the list that she could bring us. When I hung up the phone Michelangelo was behind me with a cup of tea. I did not like the look in his eyes.

He handed me the tea. "Sensei, father," he bit his lip for a moment then sighed and continued, "I'm gonna hafta go back to that warehouse."


	5. Chemical Toys

Thanks to those who sent reviews.

Hope you enjoy this next bit.

* * *

I stared at my youngest son. "But you said they only made the antidote, not the original ooze. If you go back you will not find the ooze sitting on a shelf waiting to be used to bring your brothers back to us."

"Yeah, but whoever they are they have a ton of Donny-esque lab supplies in that warehouse. They've probably got loads more stuff than Donny's does. Maybe even what April can't get her hands on."

I did not want him to go there alone but I did not want to leave his brothers as they were. I wanted my sons back.

"I'm working on a plan Master Splinter. Tonight I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna fix this sensei, don't worry."

o.O O.O O.o

I hummed soothingly to my older sons while I awaited Michelangelo's return from the warehouse. I watched as Donatello pushed a small tree down creating a bridge between two rocks. Raphael was napping peacefully in a corner while Leonardo swam aimlessly in the water. I chuckled as Donatello attempted to crawl across the tree and slid off the side. As I nudged him into a more secure position I heard footsteps echoing through the tunnels.

"Master Splinter! It worked! It totally worked! I didn't even need Casey to come inside and help."

I turned around to see Michelangelo beaming at me. He had some scrapes and a few bruises were forming but he seemed too jubilant to care about them.

"Casey waited in the van outside in case I needed help, right. So I scaled the building no problemo and snuck in through some vents in the roof. Your basic ninja spy superhero kinda stuff. Then I had to sneak through the air vents from room to room, you know, you'd be surprised how filthy that ventilation place was, and people breathe that gunk in all day…"

"Michelangelo."

"Right. So I snuck through the vents until I found the storeroom. There were a couple of guards, I knocked 'em out easy peasy. I had most of the stuff off Donny's list and was debating on the spelling of a couple words on the vials compared to the list- Donny has awful handwriting- when someone came in. He musta tripped an alarm or something 'cause soon the dude had backup pouring in."

He finally stopped long enough to take a breath but he was still squirming too much for me to bandage the few wounds he had.

"I guess they weren't expecting me to come back 'cause they were a bit slow to get goin' but man when they fought they fought hard. I took on like a dozen dudes one right after the other, take one out and another one was right there waitin'. So with some well aimed hits I knocked out the first few and then this one guy barrels into me and knocks me shell first into this huge computer system. Thank shell I wasn't electricaluted."

"Electrocuted." I muttered.

"Electrocuted, thanks sensei. So this other guy is coming up and he swings his staff at me so I grab it and pull myself out and he's completely off balance now- tips over into this ficus that's just been sitting there. Ficuses are those trees with the-?"

"The fight, Michelangelo."

"Right. So he's in the plant and his friend is in the computer where I had been and some other dudes are just layin' in the floor all unconscious-like and I somehow managed to grab my bag and hauled shell outta there- knocking out a couple of confused guards along the way- and met Casey out front. Drove around till we knew no one had followed us and then he dropped me off across town so I could run back."

"You are injured?"

"What?" he stopped. Momentarily. "No. just some bumps and bruises, couple scrapes, nothing major. But I got it all Master Splinter. I checked while Casey was circling this little hotdog stand debating on a snack and I got everything. I even got a few vials that I won't need. Donny's gonna be thrilled at his new chemical toys!"

So much of what he said worried me. I was relieved he had returned to me unharmed- for the most part. I was relieved he had been able to not only find but to retrieve the chemicals necessary for his attempts to restore his brothers to their usual state. But the thought of him playing with such chemicals made me nervous. The phrase "chemical toys" made me nervous as well. A father's nerves get quite the workout when he has such sons as I do.


	6. Eureka!

Michelangelo had been locked inside his brother's lab since his return from the warehouse. Many hours had passed and his adrenaline and enthusiasm were beginning to fade.

There was a loud bang in the lab and smoke crept out of the doorway into the rest of the lair. I ran to check on my youngest son.

The smoke was thin enough that I could still see into the room. Michelangelo was sitting in the middle of the room clutching his head. Before I could ask if he was alright he had jumped up and spun around to kick the wall.

The lab was a mess. One half of the room was filled with Donatello's notes while the other half of the room showed the aftermath of a minor explosion. Michelangelo grabbed a bucket of water and poured it over the small fire that lingered on the table.

"Michelangelo?" I asked.

"Everything's fine sensei." He said in a voice that told me that it was not. "I just ruled out one method, that's all."

"You do not have to rush things. You cannot help your brothers if you do not take care of yourself. Come have some tea. Take a break from this work to refresh your mind and your senses. Perhaps in a moment things will be clearer to you."

He went into the kitchen to prepare some tea for us while I went to work cleaning the aquarium. Raphael and Leonardo were fighting for dominance of a small rock in one corner while Donatello climbed a tiny plastic tree in another and attempted to escape his new home. I hummed quietly as I worked listening intently to my youngest son's efforts in the kitchen. There were many mumbles and sighs before the teakettle whistled.

When he brought me my tea I heard his nervous voice ask, "Sensei, what happens if I can't figure it out? What if I can't get them back?"

"Do not underestimate yourself my son, you will figure something out." I put my hand on his shoulder, "I have faith in you Michelangelo."

"Thank you, Master Splinter," he said.

"EUREKA!"

The shout woke me from a sleep I did not know I had fallen into.

"You got competition Donny 'cause there's a new scientist in the sewers!"

I looked into the lab to find my youngest son dancing around in a lab coat with goggles pushed up over his orange mask. The small aquarium was on the table in front of him next to a beaker filled with a green substance that looked very much like the ooze that had once transformed my family.

"Eureka?" I asked him.

"I've always wanted to say that." he reached in and tickled the small Raphael turtle who nipped at his fingers which were quickly moved out of reach. "Bitey little thing now aren't ya."

"Does this mean you have succeeded?"

"I hope so Master Splinter. I found this file on the computer and I tried my best to follow what it said but it kept coming out slightly wrong, like the smell and the color or whatever. So I made a few adjustments." He shot me one of his huge grins, "I think I've almost got this figured out."


	7. George

When Michelangelo felt he had made a successful enough breakthrough he explained it to April, Casey, and I.

"So after trying for two days to understand Donny's notes I found out that he'd not only simplified them most of the way through but he'd written out an ingredient list. So once I got the ingredients- thanks for the help April and Casey- I just had to find the right combination to add them in. It's kinda like baking. You just have to do it right."

"So you... baked… it?" April asked.

"Yeah… now I just hafta test it on something…."

"Like what? A guinea pig?" Casey looked rather confused by the whole ordeal.

"I won't use something that's alive! What would we do with it if the ooze works? And if it doesn't and the poor thing…. I can't." Michelangelo said. "And I won't use it on them unless I know it's safe."

"But if you use an inanimate object it may react differently than a live object would." April said.

April and Michelangelo spent the night arguing over the best way to test the new ooze before using it on his brothers.

The next morning April brought him a potted plant to test his new ooze on. "A compromise. It's alive, but it's probably not going to have to be housebroken and trained and all that other stuff. And it probably won't hurt it if this doesn't work."

With a sigh Michelangelo cautiously sprinkled a few drops into the pot. He had refused to let either of us near it in case something went wrong. Then we waited.

The following morning we awoke to see the flower had doubled in size. It barely fit into the pot that it had come in. Michelangelo insisted on moving it into a new pot and saving it for Donatello to research later. "I feel almost like it's a relative or something." He said. "I can't just toss out a relative."

April nodded like she understood then mouthed at me, "Has he gone crazy?"


	8. Changes

As it happened the first time so it happened once more. It took several days for a gradual return to what they had once been. For those of us who witnessed the return it was a tense time. We had to practice much patience as we waited to see how much they would know of who they were. The first day seemed to be the longest. Not knowing if it would work or if they would be the same boys we had once known. So many ways that things could go wrong danced around in our minds.

Michelangelo watched over them the entire time. He barely left them for more than a few moments. Not even for sleep.

He recorded everything that happened to them. Every change in behavior or size after he'd given them his ooze. "Donny's gonna wanna know everything" he insisted.

My three sons slept through most of their transformation. By the time they had awakened, Michelangelo had at last lost his battle with sleep and I was doing my best to keep record of their changes for him. It had been weeks since his last decent rest so I ordered his brothers not to bother him until he was ready.

* * *

There was a low moan from the next room.

"Hey guys, I think he's waking up!" Donatello said excitedly.

The three turtles who had been sitting cross-legged in front of Splinter throughout the story jumped up and ran into the next room. They were talking before Michelangelo had managed to sit up.

"You blew up my lab?" Donatello started.

"What on earth did you feed us Mikey?" Raphael interrupted.

"On the other hand, that mutated flower is pretty awesome…"

"I'm never gettin' that taste outta my mouth. It's vile." Raphael said sticking out his tongue and scraping it with his fingers.

"We can name it George!"

"I'd better not find any incriminating photographs of us."

"Though I am incredibly curious how it's humming… I can't find a mouth anywhere."

"Awww, but you guys were so cute when you were widdle," Michelangelo said in mock baby-talk.

"Hey!" Raphael dove onto the bed beside Michelangelo and pulled him into a noogie.

Donatello jumped into the pile and grabbed Michelangelo's feet for tickling.

They roughhoused for a few more minutes until Michelangelo finally knocked Raphael into the floor and Donatello sat propped against the headboard wheezing with laughter.

"You did good kid." Leonardo said quietly from the doorway.

Michelangelo beamed back at him.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks to those of you who reviewed. You made me happy. Go you!

I'm just gonna say in one disclaimer for the story that sadly I do not own the turtles or Splinter.


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